Relation between root zone soil moisture and normalized difference vegetation index of vegetated fields

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Abstract
Presence of soil moisture in sufficient amounts is vital for proper seed germination and early growth of crops. For irrigation scheduling and crop yield forecast modelling, knowledge of soil moisture in the crop root zone is essential. Microwave remote sensing methods provide estimates of soil moisture only in the surface layer of thickness 0-5 cm. Since crops meet their water requirement from the water available in the root zone, it is assumed that: (1) microwave response of vegetation fields at frequencies above 6 GHz should correlate with the root zone soil moisture, and (2) there should be a dependence of NDVI, known to represent the photosynthetic capacity of vegetation (Sellers 1985), on the crop root zone soil moisture (RZSM). To verify these assumptions, field measurements using a ground truth radiometer have been carried out to study the relation between the NDVI and RZSM. The crop fields considered are of maize and groundnut. The results show the relation between NDVI and RZSM is linear and is a function of crop type.

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